Lauren Walsh’s KPMG Women’s Irish Open story looks set to be one of ‘what might have been’. The Kildare woman has had no trouble making birdies – seven in Saturday’s third round, after five on Thursday and four on Friday – but it’s been the mistakes that have kept her from challenging at the top of the leaderboard.
Two double bogeys and two triple bogeys – her second triple of the week came on the fourth in round three – mean she’s at five-under-par and currently just inside the top 25.
“Yeah, if I took them away, I’d be in contention right now,” she said ruefully of the costly errors. “But look, we can’t change it now, and all I can do is go low again tomorrow.
“The mistakes this week have been very penalising, but you know, short-term memory and all of that, so I’m able to forget them. I’m making a lot of birdies anyway, which I’m happy with.”
That triple bogey was the only blemish on her card as she went out in 34 and came back in 33.
“Yeah, I played great,” she said. “I got off to a nice start with two birdies on the first two, lipped-out a six-footer on three, so I was a little disappointed, and then, yeah, unfortunately spun one back in the water on four and hit another one in the water, so made triple there, but I knew I was playing well and like I said to my caddie if you could shoot 10 under today, that would be nice, and I kind of said to him, I was like, look, if you could shoot 7 after a triple, that would be all right.
“So I was trying to just battle back, get as low as I could on the rest of the day. And, yeah, just give myself as many chances as I could.”
Having made the cut on the number, Walsh was among the earliest starters but that didn’t stop healthy crowds following and she was very appreciative of all the support she received from all those in attendance.
“Yeah, I know, it’s great,” she said. “You know, even I know we were out early today, you see so many people there on 18 and you know, to have my entire family out today was really nice.
“So hopefully we’re off a little later tomorrow and a few more people can make it out.”
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